I’ll have a new Full Frontal Nerdity up for the Escapist tomorrow morning, and it’s to do with the recent kerfuffle over what went on and then was rescinded at the Steam Workshop regarding mods for video games, specifically, Skyrim.

They thought it’d be a good idea if modders could put their work on Steam and get paid for doing so. The problem was they didn’t look at all the problems inherent in this kind of system:

• Original Authorship: There was nothing stopping someone from downloading a mod somewhere else, putting it on Steam, and claiming it was theirs. Community policing would probably have helped somewhat, but I’m not sure how something formal could be put into place nor how it could be determined who coded what at such-and-such a date for every case.

• Mod Dependencies: There are lots of mods for costumes, armor, and animations. However, they don’t all conform to the “vanilla” game. Other mods have created new and improved types of bodies, so if you bought armor for one body type and didn’t realize you needed the models, you’ve just purchased something that’s going to look very glitchy at best. There are also mods that are almost considered essential, many having things like “script extender” in their names, without which hundreds of mods just won’t work. Steam would’ve needed these files, but there was no guarantee the people who wrote them would put them up for sale.

• Copyrighted Material: There are loads of mods that apply images or models from such sources as My Little Pony, Warhammer40k, and tons of separate video game franchises. Steam would’ve had to police those and handle DMCA takedowns by the score, even if they offered them for free.

Those are just the three I could concisely type out without sounding like a textbook on economics and computer programming. In a way, the most insightful comment came from Chris “Campster” on this episode of the Diecast Podcast (note: it was recorded before Steam ended this paid-mods program) where he said something to the effect that the Workshop basically let the gaming world learn about and experience the problems with patent law over the span of about three days.

So anyway, now I’m having to write a new script for my cartoon that I’d been so proud of having put together several days before deadline. Thanks, Steam!

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Ah, “The Asylum.” They’re a movie production company I thought had finally found a niche doing so-awful-they’re-glorious films for the SyFy channel after years of basically making low budget films that were just barely different enough from similarly-named major releases to avoid lawsuits. Apparently, old habits are hard to break, though with this one they’ve fused the name of one billion-dollar blockbuster with a popular genre TV show:

That big silver-painted guy is “Iron John” played by Lou Ferigno. I can’t imagine how his most well-known previous role would fit into a movie with this title, but I’m not a movie executive. And yes, that’s Casper Van Dien as Rumpelstiltskin, which could be a step up, if not sideways, from his role as Johnny Rico of Starship Troopers fame.

Now, if the Star Wars trailer also had the words “Bruce Timm” in it, I’d have a clear favorite. I also wouldn’t mind seeing Mark Hamill’s name in this, to be perfectly honest. A head’s up that the characters in here use a few words you probably wouldn’t want your smaller heroes-in-training to repeat:

I’m also more jazzed about this movie than Batman vs. Superman. I have to say I find myself digging DC’s alternate universe stuff a lot more than their primary universe stories. I think it’s because they allow people to try something new every so often and shake things up a bit.

So there’s a promo image for the new Stormtrooper armor that’s been bouncing around the ‘net, and something occurred to me. I added a little colorization for emphasis:
I’m not saying that Disney is trying to work characters from DuckTales into the Star Wars canon, but that could set up a multi-universe crossover if Howard the Duck makes an appearance in the new Marvel Movie continuity…

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Full Frontal Nerdity has moved to Wednesday on the Escapist (see the right sidebar for the link). And yes, there are more comics coming to the main site; they just got delayed by my ongoing attempts at sound mixing, recording, and other digital manipulation.